JUST Jen

Superstar Jennifer Aniston k n o w s and appreciates the value of real-life friendship. In the midst of the launch of her new TV journey, she sat down to talk about her goddess circle, dogs and working with Reese Witherspoon on her new series, The Morning Show.

- Jessica Bennett

JENNIFER ANISTON WAS TRYING TO HAVE A QUIET WEEKEND AWAY.

It was just after her 50th birthday, and she’d boarded a plane for Mexico with six of her best girlfriends – most of whom have known her since her early days in Los Angeles, before Brad, before Justin, before Friends and before the tabloids, when they lived as neighbours on the same street in Laurel Canyon. (‘We called ourselves the Hill People,’ she said.) But a few minutes in, the pilot asked to speak with her. They had a tyre missing, and they would have to return to Los Angeles.

As the pilot burned off fuel, Aniston spent the next four hours cracking jokes and trying to remain calm (she is terrified of flying), while fielding text messages from friends who’d read about the ‘emergency landing’ – which hadn’t actually happened yet.

The women landed safely, switched planes and, the next night, gathered for a ritual they’ve been doing for thee decades: a goddess circle. Seated on cushions, crosslegged on the living-room floor, they passed around a beechwood talking stick decorated with feathers and charms, much as they had done for every major event of their lives. They had circled before Aniston’s weddings to Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux. They circled when babies were born, and when Aniston and Theroux had to put down their dog, Dolly. This time they set the circle’s intention: to celebrate how far they’ve come – and to toast Aniston’s next chapter.

‘It’s so weird. There’s so much doom around that number,’ Aniston said of 50, noting that the New Yorker in her (she spent most of her childhood on the Upper West Side) was slightly horrified at the thought of the term ‘goddess circle’ appearing in a story about her. ‘Should we just call it a “circle”?’ she asked.